Turd Traveling - Open Thread

I am traveling today after spending the Easter weekend away with MrsF and the LTs.

I hope that by later today I will be able to post a review of the day's events as well as some updated charts. For now, this is simply an open thread. The only discussion item I have is this new post from Gonzalo Lira. Where Gonzalo excels is in forward thinking. In this piece, he alerts readers that Spain will be the next "eurozone crisis" and gets you wondering about just how this will all play out.

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This post over on ZH that compares the current economic disaster to the sinking of the Titanic is an excellent analogy about where we currently stand.

It really sums things up for me - explaining why some of us (even though we know disaster is imminent) continue to seek refuge in the current paper markets (the ship). [I still own several Mining and Oil stocks].

"Imagine that you live on a farm. From the day that you are born, you are treated quite well. You’re fed well, provided with shelter, and the farmer has guns and dogs to protect you from all the bad guys lurking just outside the fence.

All they do these days is report what they want to be true, while the chimps in the audience screech and throw bananas and sh#t at each other. They should go back to spotting UFOs around Roswell. Hope this place never gets like that.

Silver is down $0.15 at the time I'm typing this. Still seems to be a weak demand in the overall market. However, we deal in physical bullion as a portion of our business and it is selling out of the display shelves at a steady pace. That says to me there is a pent up local demand for small quantities by your everyday Joe Citizen. Watching our display, only about 1 in 20 customers show any interest in bullion, and maybe half of those will buy.

This is nowhere near a frenzy or bubble, at least from the perspective I'm seeing locally. We all know the guys dealing in millions of ounces of backed or unbacked paper really drive the markets, but I really don't feel like the general public has caught on yet. When they do, they will be a force to be reckoned with.

We are getting ready to place another large order from our supplier (large by our standards anyway). This is still a great buy point, but we're watching for an indication of a reversal before ordering. Silver below $32 is a gift. It'll be even better if it hits $30. That's going to be a very short term low, though.

I heard about this over the weekend, but just saw this video from Bloomberg. I cannot believe that JPM has a Trader that carries this amount of influence and is not fully endorsed by the JPM top brass. "Rogue Trader", my ass. More obfuscation!

.... We might as well die laughing (or at least hopefully with a small grin on our face) :-

Quote:

The Economy is So Bad That…

I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.

African television stations are now showing ‘Sponsor an American Child’ commercials.

Wives are having sex with their husbands because they can’t afford batteries.

I ordered a burger at McDonald’s and the kid behind the counter asked, “Can you afford fries with that?”

CEO’s are now playing miniature golf.

Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.

A stripper was killed when her audience showered her with rolls of pennies while she danced.

I saw a Mormon polygamist with only one wife.

I bought a toaster oven and my free gift with the purchase was a bank.

The bank returns your check marked “Insufficient Funds,” but you're unsure if you should phone them and ask if they meant you or them.

McDonald’s is selling the 1/4 ouncer.

Angelina Jolie adopted a child from America.

Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children’s names.

My cousin had an exorcism but couldn’t afford to pay for it, and they re-possessed her!

A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico.

A picture is now only worth 200 words.

They renamed Wall Street “Wal-Mart Street”.

The Treasure Island casino in Las Vegas is now managed by Somali pirates.

Congress says they are looking into this Bernard Madoff scandal. ... Oh Great! The guy who made $50 Billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 Trillion disappear!

And, finally…

I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc., I called the Suicide Hotline. I got a call center in Pakistan, and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.

Sounds like your extended family are giving Scientologists a bad name. Of course everyone has their own opinion and they don't take sides really, but most I know are Ron Paul supporters (There are a TON in Los Angeles).

Is it just me or is the miniscule decline in the stock market being blown way​ out of proportion? The S&P 500 is down about 40 points from its recent high of 1422. This is less than a 3% drop and it is still up from where it was a month ago. It's all over the news that it is collapsing to the point where I'm concerned either people's perspective of what a real collapse is, is off, or it is media preparation for something.

It comes to you just once a week and is usually over twenty pages in length, but never over thirty. Full of great stuff including graphs, charts etc. Case in point, those two items that Master Turd has just posted a link to, are in the current TTMYGH... publication. Give it a try, after all it is free and if you don't like it, just cancel it.

As far as this current financial climate goes (IMHO) everyone is sitting on fences, looking at everybody else - waiting for something to happen! Me? I just keep stacking.

TRIBUTE: George Carlin, the only American dream you can have and be awake at the time.

Quote:

The thing I am proud to say about a giant like Carlin is that, dead or alive, he stands as the American personification of what The Slog is really about: trying to point out, ridicule, and get rid of people who betray real, responsible liberal democracy with their every deceitful, oxymoronic and slimey distortion of the truth.

Towards the end of his life, this man gave a speech at some gathering of Washington journalists. He chose (because he was a highly intelligent stand-up with balls of steel) to stick the ice-pick straight into every heart in the room by showing how ‘media training’ among politicians has helped destroy Anglo-Saxon democracy. And in doing so, he reduced the gathering to helpless yet grateful laughter.

It was bravado without ego, and satire without agenda. It was, in short, the comic equivalent of intravenous Sodium Pentothal, the very quintessence of engaging bollocks deconstruction. I urge you to watch it. I challenge you not to laugh your head off.

God Bless America if it can produce enough Carlins to wipe out the Blankfeins.

Interesting interview. Throughout she maintained the same volume and vocal expressiveness. Nothing much to analyze there. Actually, her facial expressions and gestures were fairly stable throughout as well. But a couple of interesting features were present.

At 2:40-50 she made a facial/body and lowered her eyes that suggests she was aware of the issue being raised, but was not comfortable with it--like she is thinking “Oh yeah, that, the manipulation.” It’s almost a guilt type expression at 2:42. Hard to get a good read without a good close-up. she has lowered her eyes, breaking eye contact at least 4 times in the 20 seconds from 2:30-50. As she begins responding she still has not returned the eye contact.

On manipulation, she shays “great question.” Really? Why the need to say this…perhaps it was great because she wanted to address it…did not take her by surprise.

She mentions the speculation in blogosphere at 3:50 (she glances down as she mentions it--looks a bit sad, pensive, for a second...I can only imagine that she is thinking about Turd).

Interesting that for 15 seconds they chose to show the silver chart and not her close-up while responding. I don't see the hand gestures now. The titles obscure her hands, but in her first two responses, her hands could be seen gesturing naturally, occasionally moving above the title. This would indicate a scripted answer.

"Store significant amounts of silver"—yes, as Pining mentioned, she looks down and away briefly after finishing the thought--a break of her eye contact. Perhaps leakage. As she continues, she begins nodding her head (yes) while she speaks--another departure from the first couple of answers. a quick laugh when interviewer mentions manipulating metals.

"That would be wrong and we don't do that." She is definitely holding back a smile

As they continue, she begins to look more comfortable, but then by 4:45 a couple of more glances down with tight lips. on through the 5 minute and beyond, she seems more closed, her eyebrows are not moving as much.

A glance away at 5:34...throughout this sequence she has been regularly glancing to the right for a half second. She is slowing down and being very deliberate. by the 5:40 mark

Interesting expression at the end of the interview--shame? Yes perhaps. I can't imagine why she might feel that!

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